Bass of the Week: HJC Customs Alchemy Fretless 5

Back at the Winter NAMM show this year, we ran into our friend Vuyani Wakaba roaming the floor with a smile from ear to ear. He was overjoyed by his new HJC Customs Fretless Alchemy 5, which is this week’s Bass of the Week.

Wakaba teamed up with luthier Harold J. Cagle for the custom creation. It features an African wood motif with highly figured Khaya Mahogany for the top and back, Andaman Padauk body core, a 13-piece padauk and wenge neck with Gaboon Ebony pinstripes, and a Gaboon ebony fingerboard covered in marine epoxy.

The bass’s matching pickup ramp hides a pair of Bartolini soapbars the size of jazz bass pickups. Each pickup can be repositioned by the player under the ramp to get different overall tones from the bass. The ramp is also fully adjustable and radiused to match the fingerboard.

Other features include a Noll preamp, a Graph Tech piezo system, and Hipshot hardware. Here’s Wakaba giving a rundown of his bass:

The pickup ramp with movable Bartolini pickups was created by Andy Zoldos. A bass luthier out of Michigan as well. Andy first came up with the idea while creating my bass… See the link above. It is really great to have the ability to move the pickups to get many different sounds. I love my bass and will NEVER part with it! Excited to see other bass builders using the idea… =)